Weather officials weren't ready to call Hurricane Sandy the Katrina of the North, but that didn't lessen the impact of the high winds and torrential rains that hit Delaware County on Monday night into this morning.

"I would not compare this to Katrina," said National Weather Service meteorologist Dean Iovino. "But it's going to be devastating and very bad in some places just as Katrina was bad in some places. It's going to have different impacts here.

"It's going to be bad."

The eye of Sandy hit the southern New Jersey Shore at about 6 p.m. on Monday and then took a path up the Delaware Bay and to the south of Delaware County in Delaware. The storm was expected to bring 6 to 10 inches of rain with wind gusts that reached over 60 mph in the early morning hours today. Sustained winds were expected to be in excess of 30 mph for much of today, before calmer conditions reach the area at about 4 p.m.

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But things weren't so calm Monday night.

PECO reported that Delaware County had more than 10,000 power outages, including in the Drexel Hill section of Upper Darby. Also, Chester Creek in Chester and Darby Creek at the MacDade Boulevard bridge in Darby Borough were at or near flood levels early Monday night.

One bit of good news is that the storm's mass, which spread about 450 miles from around its eye, picked up speed Monday evening causing it to move quicker through the area.

"It's just the movement of the storm," said National Weather Service meteorolgist Mitchell Gaines."There are variations with the speed of the storm, It takes place with every storm as it gets closer to shore."

Sandy was expected to take a northwest path across southern New Jersey and into Delaware and Eastern Pennsylvania.

But unlike most hurricanes that dissipate and lose their powerful winds once they go inland, it's going to take a while for Sandy to settle down.

And that's bad news for everyone in the region.

"When it moves inland, it's so large and it has so much energy with it, it is going to take some time," Iovino said. "It's going to be a very slow weakening."

Iovino said the strongest part of the storm was ahead of the eye.

"The strongest of the wind will be later this afternoon and into this evening," Iovino said Monday. "At that point, the sustained winds are suspected to be 35 to 50 mph with gusts up into the 60 to 70 mph range.

"It just depends on where the track of the storm is. As it pulls to the west, the winds will pick up. After the eye passes, the winds will be strong, but not as strong as before."

Iovino wouldn't call this the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Northeast, but that doesn't mean it's not significant.

"There are a few that have been worse, but not many," he said. "It will be a storm to remember without a doubt."

That will be the case for one Upper Darby family which had part of a tree fall on its house in a room where a baby was sleeping at about 5 a.m. Monday. The baby was not seriously injured as it was sleeping on the opposite side of the room. The tree fell between two houses, striking one of them.

The 6 to 10 inches of rain caused flooding in some areas as well as soft ground, that combined with the strong winds, is expected to bring down trees and cause power outages.

"The heavy rain will be another issue," Iovino said.

Light rain is expected to continue into the early mornings hours Wednesday.

SEPTA announced Monday afternoon that it would not have service this morning as it would take 6 to 8 hours to inspect infrastructure after the storm passes. The Broad Street and Market-Frankford lines are expected to be the first back in operation, with no firm date on when regional rail that services much of Delaware County will be in operation again.

All flights at Philadelphia International Airport were cancelled for Monday and today. U.S. Airways canceled 1,641 flights combined from Philadelphia, Washington, New York and Boston on Monday. U.S. Airways said Trans Atlantic flights destined for Philadelphia will remain in Europe until Wednesday. U.S. Airways spokesperson Todd Lehmacher said the company hopes to resume flights Wednesday.

PECO has mobilized more than 3,000 employees, contractors and out-of-state crews to respond to Hurricane Sandy. The crews will include more than 1,500 field personnel from utilities as far away as Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as field personnel from PECO's Chicago-based sister utility ComEd.

PECO also warned in a release that it may not be able to immediately provide estimated restoration times until damages are fully assessed.

Customers who experience an outage or issue with their natural gas service should call the company immediately at 1-800-841-4141. The more customers who call to report an outage, the more effectively PECO can dispatch crews and restore service.

Amtrak announced it was cancelling all services on its northeast corridor Tuesday.

PennDOT also closed the full length of Interstates 95 and 676; I-476 (non-toll portion); I-76 from the Pa. Turnpike to Passyunk Avenue and the U.S. Route 1 Extension in Philadelphia to all traffic except emergency vehicles from 7 p.m. Monday through 2 a.m. today.

The DRPA also closed all of its bridges Monday from 7 p.m. until 2 a.m. today.